The prospect of remaking NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION filled many people with dread. There is very little that can compete with that classic comedy and very few who could step into Chevy Chase‘s shoes. So, instead, the new VACATION is a sequel to those classic comedies while featuring a new cast led by Ed Helms and Christina Applegate.
Reusing the same plot as the original movie, the new VACATION makes a distinct effort to say that it is it’s own movie while hitting practically every beat as the classic film. There seems to be a concerted effort to make Helms’ Rusty Griswold as vacuous as his father but he seems to go back and forth in what he does or does not know. In one scene, he knows what a gloryhole is but in the next is clueless about rim-jobs. I get that writer/directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are trying to replicate the classic comedy but it seems a bit off balance.
Rusty Griswold takes his own family on a road trip to “Walley World” in order to spice things up with his wife and reconnect with his sons.
The inclusion of Beverly D’Angelo and Chevy Chase in cameos is a good choice but the key casting here seems to be Chris Hemsworth who steals the trailer in his short screen time. That and the final gag that twists a scene from the original makes me think that this may be a VACATION worth taking.
VACATION opens in theaters on July 29th.